


What We Were Dreaming Of

by halfbloodbritish



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-29
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 09:06:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/660230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfbloodbritish/pseuds/halfbloodbritish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	What We Were Dreaming Of

It was busier than usual in the pub that night; outside the early November air buffeted pedestrians, and bit through their many layers of coats and sweaters. But the pub, old-fashioned and respectable, offered an inviting fire by which many numb-fingered people sat at small, clustered tables with a hot meal and lager or red wine before them. The hum of cheered voices ran through the room, the loudest coming from the group of regulars at the bar, already onto their fourth drink.

This larger-than-usual crowd kept the bartender sufficiently occupied for an hour or so, and then, when all that needed doing was to top up the glasses of the rowdy drinkers, Louis Tomlinson drifted off into a dream-like state.

"Hey Lou." The voice broke into his sub-conscience and scattered his daydream into irretrievable corners of his mind.

"Huh?" It was Zayn, a waiter and kitchen assistant who lived with and was often shifted on with Louis.

"If you aren't too busy," said Zayn with a smirk, "take these to table three. I'm a bit tied up right now, and Liam's just got here so I was hoping to organise my next session."

Louis saw the smiling figure of Liam making his way between the tables towards them. "Uh ok," Louis replied, taking the plates of food from Zayn and making his way around the bar to deliver them. When he returned, Zayn had finished talking with Liam and was still standing where he had left him, still with that knowing look of smirk paired with smile. "What?"

"Nothing," Zayn said, shaking his head and walking back to the kitchen. "Thanks for doing that for me mate."

Louis knew Zayn suspected something of him, although he was not quite sure that anything he had done could be called a crime. But then again, his and Zayn's rulebooks were very different. And anyway, there was not much time to ponder this, as the crowd of drinkers at the bar was swelling, added to from the group of latecomers who had just arrived.

An hour or so later at about eleven-thirty, after Louis had ever-so-politely suggested that they clear out for closing time, both Zayn and Louis were left in the building by themselves. The chef had left not so long ago, and the other waiters had long-since left their posts. When Zayn had finished the last of the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen, and Louis had cleaned up the bar, the two of them worked to pack up the tables and chairs for the night. 

"What did you mean before? You know, when you asked me to deliver those plates for you?" Louis asked, as he had just remembered about this.

"It was nothing," Zayn replied, "really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Zayn cleared his throat in an effort to change the subject.

Once they had finished stacking the chairs on top of the tables, Louis locked up the building with his set of keys, and the two of them, equipped with coats, faced the trek over the windy and rain-swept car park out the back to Louis' car, nothing more than a dull silver blob a hundred or so metres away.

"You ready?" asked Zayn, taking a stance, a grin creeping onto his face.

Lou mirrored him. "When you are." 

"GO."

Without hesitation, the pair took off. Rain pelted them from the right side, the wind blowing them off course. Louis' shoes were of course no match for the numerous puddles, each a clear inch deep in the worn parts of the tarmac. Although the water chilled him to the bone, Louis pulled the hood of his sweatshirt more tightly around his head, and kept on running.

Zayn won the race; even back in junior school he had always been the best runner in the class, always getting awards for fast-paced sports. The only team Louis had ever been on was the football team, and that was how the two of them had ended up meeting.

When Louis got the the car short of breath, Zayn was leaning against it, pulling his jacket tightly around him. Louis went around to the driver's side, jabbed his key in the keyhole, and the two of them clambered inside. "Took your time," Zayn grumbled.

Louis started up the engine, and soon they had merged with the late-night London traffic. The two friends were quiet for a few minutes.

"So," Zayn said after a while, lightly punching Lou on the arm, "Liam, hey?"

"What?" Zayn's weirdness tonight was particularly confusing to Louis.

"Well, what do you think of him?" Zayn was more serious now.

"Er." Louis didn't quite know how to respond to this. "He seems a nice bloke, if that's what you mean. Why?"

Zayn looked across at him. "Well, I'm just trying to say that you might be seeing a bit more of him from now on."

"What exactly are you trying to tell me?" asked Louis, suddenly becoming uncomfortable in his seat.

"Well," replied Zayn with an absent-minded smile, "we're, you know, thinking of stepping it up beyond the boundary of friends."

"WHAT?" Louis, momentarily distracted, had not noticed the red light ahead, and slammed on the breaks as to not crash into the car in front. Meanwhile, Zayn was beside himself with laughter.

"I can't believe you fell for that!" 

The lights turned green, and Louis drove onwards. After Zayn's cackles had subsided, he spoke again.

"It could be possible, y'know," Louis said with a sideways glance.

"Look, I was actually going to say that we've organised more tutoring time because I need a little help right now. Do you actually think I swing that way?" Zayn cracked up again.

"No," replied Lou with a sigh, "But if you did, I'd have no problem with it. It just took me by surprise, that's all." Zayn was laughing too much to reply.

After ten more minutes, Louis pulled into their street, a shady avenue full of once-nice but worn housing. Most of the larger houses had been split into two or three smaller units, mainly housing students or young working people. The atmosphere of the street was friendly, far from the roughness of the area, although old Mrs Prue from across the road could always find something to complain about.

Louis parked out on the road in front of their house, a slightly vandalised but homely old thing, with a small, overgrown garden at the front. No one who lived there had any real gardening experience, and so it was left to run wild. Perhaps, Lou often thought, it was better off this way. The house, now past its prime, had been converted into two moderately-sized apartments, the upstairs of which belonged to Louis and Zayn. 

Bracing the weather once again, he and Zayn left the car and made for the front porch. Zayn unlocked the door, and they went in. A few metres to their right was a sturdy-looking door, a gold '55A' nailed to the door. The two friends continued up the stairs to their own flat 55B which had on it a similar gold number.

When they went in, Louis and Zayn left for their own rooms almost immediately, too run down with the aftermath of the late shift to talk. When Louis entered his of the three bedrooms (their flatmate Andy was already asleep), the green light of the alarm clock blinked in the earlier hours of the morning. Louis turned the radio on while he got ready for bed, and a talkative girl from the student radio station chattered brightly over some issue. With a sigh, Louis went to the bathroom to clean his teeth.

When Louis came back however, it was a different voice altogether; deep, slightly tired and with a hint of laughter. "Hi I'm Harry. And I am new to this whole radio show thing," it said. Then the chatty girl was back.

"Welcome to our student radio Harry. Now, I'm going to pop off in a bit and leave Harry to it, but first of all, let's get to know him a little better. What are you studying, Harry?"

"Do we have to do this?" Harry asked. "I'm sure you have class in the morning, you'd best be getting some sleep."

"No I-"

"I'll take over from here, it's okay."

"But-"

"Bye Amanda."

Louis was in bed by this stage with the light turned off, but he was not going to sleep just yet. He rarely listened to the radio anyway, but for some reason Louis took a fancy to this new guy. He was just so... _casual_. He sounded a laugh anyway.

"Anyway, now that I'm all comfortable, let's get under way with the first song. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because that'd be cheating, but a can tell you that I'm studying photography," Harry said, as the beginning of an unfamiliar beat drowned his voice out. And it was to this beat, which Louis fell asleep.


End file.
